You are working from hindsight. Back when fight was introduced fight was introduced to give green a form of direct damage. Afterwards it has been decided that allowing Rabid Bite in green is okay, but fight was introduced with the premise in mind that Rabid Bite-like effects are too close to red's variants on the theme e. g. Soul's Fire.
The experiences with fight in both colors and seeing the effects next to each other influenced the way Rabid Bite is currently applied in green. The next step might very well be to reduce fight to insignificance and then phase it out. Though the next step might as well be regretting Rabid Bite and rolling back the decision to allow the effect in green. We have seen similar developments before.
Currently fight has some virtues, like good flavor and the ability to vary the damage dealing effects better with little added complexity for some depth (fight is insanely grokkable, but produces comprehension downtime when not keyworded since there are variants). As experience tells us evergreen keywords can ride on less for a while.
tl;dr-version: Fight was more important when it was introduced than detain would be now. The only fair (i. e. useful) comparisson point for asking whether a mechanic should be introduced in the evergreen pool is the time of introduction.
Some questions I might have missed the answers to:
What are the three overlapping evergreen keywords mentioned in the first post (one of them fight)?
Aren't there already more detain-like effect options available in white-blue than there are fight-like effect options in red-green? There are tapping and tapping-skip-untap, but temporary exile effects can be used similarly - and partial detain could still exist along-side the keyword action.
The one great benefit that detain IMO could bring to the table that taping generally doesn't comes with cards that say "detain target permanent" or more specifically "detain target creature or planeswalker" - Deadlock Trap would have liked that one. (You don't get points for guessing whether I think detain might have been part of KLD design as a consulate mechanic at some point. If anything this is an indicator that detain - if considered as a returning mechanic - has not been made evergreen despite that use.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
Some questions I might have missed the answers to:
What are the three overlapping evergreen keywords mentioned in the first post (one of them fight)?
Aren't there already more detain-like effect options available in white-blue than there are fight-like effect options in red-green? There are tapping and tapping-skip-untap, but temporary exile effects can be used similarly - and partial detain could still exist along-side the keyword action.
The evergreen RG keywords are Trample, Fight, and now Reach.
There are a lot of Regeneration effects in black and green, but that didn't stop R&D from phasing it out in favor of temporary Indestructible. Granted, Detain has the aforementioned memory issues, but that isn't anywhere near as bad as Regeneration's comprehension issues. I will agree that Detain probably should have tapped the creature down if for no other reason than as a reminder, at which point it could simply function as keyworded tapdown.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
You are working from hindsight. Back when fight was introduced fight was introduced to give green a form of direct damage. Afterwards it has been decided that allowing Rabid Bite in green is okay, but fight was introduced with the premise in mind that Rabid Bite-like effects are too close to red's variants on the theme e. g. Soul's Fire.
The experiences with fight in both colors and seeing the effects next to each other influenced the way Rabid Bite is currently applied in green. The next step might very well be to reduce fight to insignificance and then phase it out. Though the next step might as well be regretting Rabid Bite and rolling back the decision to allow the effect in green. We have seen similar developments before.
Currently fight has some virtues, like good flavor and the ability to vary the damage dealing effects better with little added complexity for some depth (fight is insanely grokkable, but produces comprehension downtime when not keyworded since there are variants). As experience tells us evergreen keywords can ride on less for a while.
tl;dr-version: Fight was more important when it was introduced than detain would be now. The only fair (i. e. useful) comparisson point for asking whether a mechanic should be introduced in the evergreen pool is the time of introduction.
Some questions I might have missed the answers to:
What are the three overlapping evergreen keywords mentioned in the first post (one of them fight)?
Aren't there already more detain-like effect options available in white-blue than there are fight-like effect options in red-green? There are tapping and tapping-skip-untap, but temporary exile effects can be used similarly - and partial detain could still exist along-side the keyword action.
The one great benefit that detain IMO could bring to the table that taping generally doesn't comes with cards that say "detain target permanent" or more specifically "detain target creature or planeswalker" - Deadlock Trap would have liked that one. (You don't get points for guessing whether I think detain might have been part of KLD design as a consulate mechanic at some point.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
The evergreen RG keywords are Trample, Fight, and now Reach.
There are a lot of Regeneration effects in black and green, but that didn't stop R&D from phasing it out in favor of temporary Indestructible. Granted, Detain has the aforementioned memory issues, but that isn't anywhere near as bad as Regeneration's comprehension issues. I will agree that Detain probably should have tapped the creature down if for no other reason than as a reminder, at which point it could simply function as keyworded tapdown.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Oh, you mean "overlapping" in the color pair not in functionality.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO